Quote:
Originally Posted by FFX-ME
What is the relevance here? That link does not even mention the MLB for baseball.
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Why the Montreal Expos could make a comeback
Many things have changed since they left in 2004, but there's still a stadium issue
Jamie Strashin CBC Sports Mar 31, 2017
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"All the big U.S. markets have been sucked up long ago and that really leaves you with a bunch of mid-markets and small markets," Brown says.
A Major League Baseball team and its 162-game schedule could be attractive to media giant Bell, always hungry for content for its many platforms, including its cable sports network TSN.
Bell rival Rogers, which owns the Blue Jays, currently has a stranglehold on the baseball market in Canada.
'A whole new world'
But the economic pie extends far beyond television. As media rights fees have exploded and MLB has expanded its digital empire, there are millions of dollars available annually to all 30 MLB teams that simply didn't exist when the Expos left town.
With a more generous revenue-sharing plan now in place to help level the playing field, franchise values have skyrocketed. It's a long way from the talk of contraction and economic doom that accompanied the Expos' demise.
Today, even poorly run franchises are extremely valuable. Take the Miami Marlins, with their thin attendance and dismal local television deal. They have a sparkling new stadium and are valued at between $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion US.
"It's a whole new world," says Brown.
It all makes a return of the Montreal Expos at least plausible.
Now about that stadium …